Sri Lanka has turned corner - Moody

Sri Lanka coach Tom Moody believes his team has turned the corner after some poor results in India and New Zealand and is ready for a testing VB Series with Australia and South Africa.

The Sri Lankans, the 1996 world champions, have battled in recent times, winning just two of their past 11 outings, including a 6-1 series defeat in India during October and November.

That poor form continued on their trip to New Zealand, where the Black Caps were denied a series whitewash when the Sri Lankans won the fourth and final game by 20 runs.

And it is that victory and his team's willingness to work hard at training which is giving Moody hope as his charges prepare to tackle the world's two best one-day teams this summer.

"We've had a difficult couple of months but we turned the corner over in New Zealand even before we won that last game," Moody said on Tuesday afternoon.

"We've worked very hard. We haven't avoided any issues on and off the field and the discipline's been there at training. It's just a matter of time for things to turn around. We need to maintain that work ethic and hopefully that will pay dividends here."

"There's a number of things we've put into practice as a group of players that are starting to fall into place. So the timing's probably good to come here. We're full of confidence form our last game's performance and looking forward to the competition here."

While teams from the subcontinent have traditionally struggled to come to terms with the harder and faster wickets in Australia, skipper Marvan Atapattu believes Sri Lanka's experience in New Zealand will hold them in good stead.

"Over the years the wickets in New Zealand have changed a bit I guess. Certainly in the last two games, the wickets we played on wasn't too far away from the Australian ones," he explained.

"They're pretty much the same. They had a bit of carry and bounce so I'm sure there won't be much of a difference."